‘Coachella: 20 Years In The Desert’ Recalls Festival Highlights As Its Fate Remains Unknown 

I’ve worked at music festivals and I’ve played music festivals but honestly, I’ve always hated music festivals. Too many people, too many bands, too much sun, too many mosh pits, too many Birkenstocks, and not enough porta potties. Despite my own curmudgeonly instincts, however, I do understand their appeal – the sense that you’re taking part in music history, the thrill of the journey there and back, the tales of surviving bad weather, bad behavior and yes, porta potties. Memories are made of this.

Long a mainstay of Europe’s live music scene, the past twenty years have seen a proliferation of music festivals sprout up across the United States. Few are as commercially successful and culturally significant as Southern California’s Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. Produced by YouTube Originals and currently streaming on YouTube, the new documentary Coachella: 20 Years in the Desert recounts the festival’s history and highlights and explores its symbiotic relationship with its performers.

Though it currently books a diverse array of headliners pulled from the top of the pop charts, Coachella traces its roots back to the rough and tumble L.A. punk scene. Since its inception, the festival has been organized by Goldenvoice Productions, which was founded in 1981 by music industry outsider and marijuana smuggler Gary Tovar, who put on shows by such bands as The Dead Kennedys and Black Flag.

As early ’80s hardcore morphed into late ’80s alternative rock, Goldenvoice seemed poised for success yet continued to struggle financially. Their steady source of funding was Tovar’s weed business, which complicated matters when he was arrested and sentenced to 7 years in prison in the early ’90s. In his absence, soft spoken ska fan Paul Tollett stepped in and assumed leadership and URB magazine founder Raymond Roker later came on as a consultant, sharing what he learned putting on raves in L.A.

Inspired by Glastonbury and other European festivals, Tollett wanted to create a stand alone multi-day concert, drawing from Goldenvoice’s alt rock rolodex but also featuring dance and hip hop DJs and multiple performance spaces. In October 1999, the first Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival was put on at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California, in the desert two hours east of Los Angeles. The area’s perpetual sunshine and warm weather gave it an advantage over both predecessors and competitors but despite a strong lineup and drawing almost 40,000 attendees, it failed to turn a profit, nearly bankrupting Goldenvoice in the process.

Coachella’s future looked uncertain, however, in 2001 Goldenvoice was purchased by event promoter AEG, who insisted the company bring back the festival. By 2004, they were making a profit and soon became famous for high profile reunions, starting with Jane’s Addiction in its sophomore year and continuing to the present day with this year’s prospective headliners Rage Against The Machine. Just as important, however, remains its focus on emerging artists with each lineup being a snapshot of who people were talking about and listening to that year.

Coachella: 20 Years In The Desert is broken up into different chapters, showcasing various periods of the festival’s history and the different genres which found a home there. From its start, EDM was prominently featured at Coachella, showcasing DJs in specialized dance music tents before ascending to the main stage in 2006 with Daft Punk’s history-making performance. Likewise, hip hop started as an ancillary part of the festival’s booking before taking its place front and center with Jay-Z’s 2010 headlining set.

Directed by Chris Perkel (Clive Davis: The Soundtrack of Our Lives), Coachella: 20 Years In The Desert is at its best when it focuses on the people who made the festival happen and how their love of music has kept it feeling fresh and vital for over 20 years. Though at times it feels like an ad sales highlight reel, I really can’t blame the filmmakers as it would be irresponsible to skip over such incidents as 2012’s Tupac hologram or Beyoncé’s 2018 performance, which were among the biggest music stories of their respective years.

Unfortunately, there’s no way to watch this film right now and not think about the future of live music in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. This year’s Coachella Festival has already been moved from April to October —the fest’s second weekend would have been happening this very weekend— and there is debate as to whether it will happen this year at all, according to local newspaper the Palm Springs Desert Sun. Some say large scale music events may not be able to return until 2021. Along with festivals and tour cancellations, countless small venues have also been shuttered and forced to lay off their staffs, many of whom are musicians themselves. What I wouldn’t do to go see a live band right now, even a bad one, and not have to worry about covering my face and washing my hands nine times and taking a shower after someone bumped into me on the dancefloor. Hell, I’d even go to a festival.

Benjamin H. Smith is a New York based writer, producer and musician. Follow him on Twitter:@BHSmithNYC.

Watch Coachella: 20 Years In The Desert on YouTube